PORTRAIT OF A FIGHTER

October 1st 2013. Sergeant Jonathan Hamou’s life is turned upside down when he is seriously injured in a grenade explosion whilst preparing for a mission to Djibouti. The result: the 27-year-old commando parachutist has both hands amputated and suffers an injury to his right foot.

After 6 months in hospital re-learning simple everyday activities, Jonathan turns to sport as a way to refocus his life and provide new challenges.

A long period of rehabilitation followed with small victories and special encounters that steered this fighter towards his goal: to enjoy life and to make his family and former brothers in arms proud of him again.

As soon as he left the hospital, this snowsports enthusiast got back on his snowboard. He met Patrice Barattero, a trailblazer in adaptive-snowboarding, who encouraged him to train with a small group of snowboarders with disabilities.

In 2014, Jonathan met Laura Schiel, a former para-taekwondo world champion. Familiar with combat sports, he loved her demonstration and asked to join the Provence Sport Taekwondo Club in order to learn to use his legs better.

The rest is history: silver medal for France in the boardercross in 2015, 4 medals at the Invictus Games in 2016 and the Paralympic Games in 2020 and 2022 in his sights - in taekwondo and snowboarding! It is a dream that is achievable for this all-round athlete who is driven by an underlying determination that has never left him.

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JONATHAN AND TIGNES: A PERFECT MATCH

In November 2016, Jonathan Hamou was invited to take part in the first edition of the International SPORT VALUES Festival. Here, he took part in the Morning Talks with local school children and students recounting his experience of high-level sport during the “Mental and Physical Rehabilitation Through Sport” session.

For Tignes, it was a match made in heaven! The resort asked him to join the “Tignes Masters” team so that it could support him in his training for his next big sporting commitments.

At the same time, Jonathan Hamou has been undertaking autumn training on the glacier since 2015, preparing for his snowboarding season.

Snowboard:
French boardercross silver medal-winner in 2015
7th in the IPC World Cup banked slalom in November 2015 (Laandgraff – Netherlands)
10th in the IPC World Cup boardercross in March 2016 (Angles – FRANCE)

Current goals:
European Taekwondo Championships in England – September 2017
Invictus Games in Canada - 2017
Military World Games – 2019
Paralympic Games - 2020 and 2022.